{"id":2558,"date":"2017-02-03T20:44:32","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T15:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fableandi.com\/?p=2558"},"modified":"2022-03-30T21:41:38","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T16:11:38","slug":"not-say-nothing-madeliene-thien-ambitious-musical-historical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebooksatchel.com\/not-say-nothing-madeliene-thien-ambitious-musical-historical\/","title":{"rendered":"Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien – Ambitious, Musical And Historical"},"content":{"rendered":"
When Marie befriends Ai-Ming, a girl who has fled China in the aftermath of the Tiananmen protests, she does not imagine that it will send her on a journey to rediscover her father’s past, the history of a country swamped in revolutionary ideas and the importance of both music and silence.<\/p>\n
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Do Not Say We Have Nothing<\/em> has won several awards including the Giller Prize (2016)<\/a><\/span>, Governor General’s Literary Award (2016)<\/a> <\/span>and was a contender in the Man Booker Prize shortlist (2016)<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIn a single year, my father left us twice. The first time, to end his marriage, and the second, when he took his own life. I was ten years old.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The novel is told through two parallel narratives.\u00a0The first one, written in the\u00a0first person, is told from the perspective of a girl named Marie, living in Canada with her Chinese mother. Her father Jiang Kai left to Hong Kong few years back and eventually committed suicide. The lives of the mother and Marie, are interrupted when a young Chinese girl, named Ai-Ming seeks refuge in their home after fleeing from the massacre in Tiananmen Square. The second thread of narration, told in third person, follows the lives of three friends – composer Sparrow (Ai-Ming\u2019s father), violinist Zhuli (Sparrow\u2019s niece) and the pianist Kai (Marie\u2019s father). As Marie comes to discovers truths about life in revolutionary China and uncovers her father\u2019s past, she decides to put together the fragments and understand the complete picture of his life, her legacy and the history of the country where her roots lie.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This was my first book that talked about the history of China, so I was fascinated to learn more about it. The book spans through almost fifty years of political history of China. The cultural revolution that happened in China was horrifying to read about. Thien delicately portrays the emotional struggles of the three musicians who yearn to do what they love but are limited by bans on creative expression. Playing the wrong kind of music can land you behind bars or even get you killed. The passages about 500 pianos being destroyed were heart breaking to read about.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt was a time of chaos, of bombs and floods, when love songs streamed from the radios and wept down the streets. Music sustained weddings, births, rituals, work, marching, boredom, confrontation and death; music and stories, even in times like these, were a refuge, a passport, everywhere<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Music plays an important role in the narrative. Each of the three musicians get a sizeable chunk in the book with regard to their love for it. Each one reciprocates the pull of music in a different way. The book also talks a lot about silence \u2013 \u201cSilence, too, is a kind of music. Silence will last<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\nReview<\/h3>\n